If you moved into Sundance Ranch three or four years ago, your weekend errand loop probably ran through Cedar Park or Georgetown. That loop is shrinking. The stretch of Highway 29 between your gate and US-183 has quietly turned into the retail spine Liberty Hill has been waiting on, and the ripple through Main Street and the newer marketplace pads is what this post is about. Not "should you live here." You already do. This is what's open, what's opening, and what's worth putting on the calendar between now and the holidays.
The single biggest change to daily life in Liberty Hill this year isn't a restaurant. It's a warehouse. Costco opened in March 2026 at U.S. Highway 183 and State Highway 29, anchoring the Liberty Hill Crossing center near the Georgetown-Leander border. For anyone in Sundance Ranch, that turns a 45-minute round trip to the Cedar Park warehouse into a quick loop.
That's phase one. Phase two arrives this summer. In June, a Target is expected to open in Liberty Hill Crossing shopping center near the Georgetown/Leander border. The large-format store will be 20,000 feet larger than the average Target, totalling 148,000 square feet. This will allow more space for online order fulfillment and potential shop-in-shops, such as Starbucks or Ulta Beauty. A Target with a Starbucks and an Ulta inside it, ten minutes from your driveway, replaces three separate trips.
The pattern behind all of this has a name in commercial real estate: retail follows rooftops. Williamson County's population has climbed fast enough to change what the market can support. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Williamson County's 2010 population stood at 422,679. Ten years later, that number climbed to 609,017, a 44 percent increase. The bureau's population estimate for 2025 is 19 percent higher, at 752,827 people. That's the math the leasing agents saw before they signed Costco.
The chains are the headline. The interesting eating is happening at a smaller scale, and most of it is within a fifteen-minute drive.
Here is a quick tally of what's opened in the last several months and what's on the near horizon:
| Spot | Status | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Elenita's Taco Truck | Open since Dec. 8 | Breakfast and lunch tacos from the family that owned Elena's Mexican Restaurant |
| Wish Kitchen + Bar | Open in downtown Liberty Hill | Scratch kitchen with a full bar, whimsy-themed |
| Mercado Libertad | Opened Jan. 5 | Latin grocery with fresh produce, tortillas, and spices |
| La Tequila Jalisco | Under construction on Hwy 29 | 3,400 sq ft Mexican restaurant with breakfast service |
| Panda Express | Summer 2026 | First Liberty Hill location, on Hwy 29 in Heritage Ridge |
| Chick-fil-A | Targeting May 2026 | 5,030 sq ft with drive-thru at Bar W Marketplace |
| Einstein Bros Bagels | Late 2025 to 2026 | Drive-thru and walk-up at Gateway 29 |
| Waffle House | Construction June to December 2026 | On Hwy 29 near Stonewall Ranch |
A few of these deserve more than a table row. Central Texas business owner Mike Farr and his sons Bradley and Dylan Farr collaborated to open Wish Kitchen + Bar in downtown Liberty Hill. All menu items, except for baked goods like buns and tortillas, are made from scratch in-house. The new spot has a full bar with cocktails, beer and wine. The theme is centered around all things that people can wish upon, including dandelions, coins, eyelashes and ladybugs. That's not a formula concept. It's the kind of place a downtown gets exactly once, and Liberty Hill's downtown got it in November.
Elenita's is a similar story of continuity rather than turnover. Elenita's Taco Truck opened in Liberty Hill on Dec. 8, co-owner Elena Soto said. Soto owns the food truck with her daughter, Grace Salazar. The family previously owned Elena's Mexican Restaurant. Elenita's is open for breakfast and lunch, serving Mexican staples like tacos, burritos, tortas and soups. If you missed Elena's the first time around, this is a second chance in a smaller wrapper.
For a lighter lunch or an actual healthy option that isn't a chain salad, The Daily Blend's menu features avocado toasts, smoothies, salads, protein bites, hummus, and sandwiches. Breakfast includes avocado and green toast with fruit, green or protein smoothies, and more. For lunch, there's a turkey sandwich with Greek yogurt pesto sauce or a berry pecan salad. There are protein bites, snack cups, and yogurt parfaits, plus healthy bites for kids like PB&J. They've been open since mid-November at 13740 W. Hwy. 29.
And a bakery worth planning around: Food Network Big Bake Holiday 2022 winner Michelle Doyon and her staff make pastries, cupcakes, and other sweet treats at Michelle's Patisserie at 1908 Main St. Specialty cake flavors include amaretto peach, banana rum, and honey lavender, alongside traditional ones like German chocolate and Italian crème. Order ahead for birthdays. Walk-ins for a Saturday morning croissant.
The San Antonio Express-News even noted the irony that Liberty Hill, a town of approximately 12,000 people, is getting a Waffle House while San Antonio residents continue to wait.
That line, reported earlier this year, is a decent summary of where Liberty Hill sits on the commercial map in 2026. A Waffle House is a lagging indicator of a place that has quietly become a real town.
If you circle a single event this summer, make it July 3. The City of Liberty Hill announced that rising Texas country artist Caleb Young will headline this year's Independence Day Spectacular on Friday, July 3, 2026. The annual celebration will take place from 6 to 10 p.m. at Liberty Hill Middle School and promises an evening full of family-friendly fun, live entertainment, contests, food, and one of the largest fireworks displays in the area.
A few practical notes for planning your evening:
Bring the water bottles. Leave the cooler.
The Independence Day Spectacular is the marquee. The rest of the calendar is where you find your neighbors. Whimsy & Wonder, Liberty Hill's interactive art and music festival, takes place in May. Main Street is transformed into an eclectic fusion of everything whimsical and wonderful, with surprise elements. The Liberty Hill Fair & Rodeo, Whimsy & Wonder, Independence Day Spectacular, Christmas Festival and Veterans Day Ceremony are all popular festivals.
Weekly and monthly, there's more happening than most residents realize. A partial June snapshot from the community calendar:
If you moved in during the pandemic era, the trivia night at Liberty Hill Beer Market is a low-lift way to run into people you actually live near.
The story of Liberty Hill in 2026 is not that big boxes have replaced the small stuff. It's that both are running in parallel. A locally owned boutique, Blinded by the Light, celebrated five years of operation in Liberty Hill in November. Owned by Deb Lohman, the boutique combines her passion for interior design with a love of customers. She first opened her store in November 2021. Five years in retail is a real milestone in a town this size.
For families with kids and a rainy Saturday, Kitfox's Fun Center recently changed its name from Kitfoxy's Putt Putt & Pew Pew to Kitfox's Fun Center. The indoor activity center has two nine-hole mini-golf courses, a 2,000-square-foot laser tag area for players ages 5 and older and a private party room for events.
And when the DIY project can't wait, Sherwin-Williams is estimated to be open in April as a go-to spot for home projects. The 4,499-square-foot store at 12360 W. Hwy 29 offers paint, supplies, stains, concealers, and expert advisors and contractors. One fewer trip to Georgetown.
Two years ago, the honest answer to "what's near Sundance Ranch" was "not much yet." That answer no longer holds. The retail is catching up to the rooftops, the small-business fabric on Main Street is thickening rather than thinning, and the community calendar has weight. If you own here, that's the kind of shift that shows up in resale narratives well before it shows up in the comps.
When you're ready to talk about what your home looks like in this stronger local context, whether that's timing a move-up, refining a remodel, or eventually taking your equity to the next chapter, Merissa Anderson Group has been mapping this market house by house. Let's write your story of home. Schedule a free consultation.
Whether you're moving up or looking for your dream home, we're here to guide you every step of the way. Let’s make your real estate journey a seamless success!
275 SE INNER LOOP GEORGETOWN TX 78626